Broward suburbia's jet noise temporary

May 12, 2011|By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

Suddenly some folks think it's not as great having the airport so conveniently close.

Just one week into a two-month change in runways and jet flight paths at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 163 people have lodged their complaints about the noise directly to the airport. Others barked their frustration in emails to county commissioners.

"They want it to change, they want me to stop it, some of them want compensation, they want to move, their dogs are having a heart attack. One man literally was cussing,'' airport noise official Winston Cannicle said.

One man said two months would feel like two years, his nerves already frayed after only three days. Some claim they can see the pilot's face.

"People are not able to sleep,'' said airport spokesman Greg Meyer. "The airport understands that.''

Thousands of people in Broward are now realizing that the airport that by car might be 15 or 20 minutes from home, is much closer the way a crow — or airplane — flies.

That means scores of residents are now in the flight path for jets roaring toward landings or screaming away in departures. Jets are coming in over parts of Tamarac, Sunrise, Plantation, Davie and Fort Lauderdale, and flying out over Dania Beach and a small part of Hollywood.

Almost 4,000 people live in the new high-noise zone, and many thousands of others are enduring new jet rumblings as well.

The main runway, which runs east-west, is closed about 20 hours of the day for a $20 million set of improvements mostly aimed at accommodating more jet traffic. A second, $791 million main runway also is in the works, for the same reason.

The runway that's open now is diagonal, pointing northwest toward the Riverland community, near where Interstates 95 and 595 meet, and pointing southeast toward the Dania Jai-Alai area on Dania Beach Boulevard.

Residents in Broward are enduring the longest use of the diagonal runway since at least the 1990s, according to airport officials.

Dania Beach activists say others are getting just a brief taste of what northeast Dania homeowners will endure forever, as soon as the second main runway opens in 2014. The city unsuccessfully fought the project for years.

"As much as these other people are complaining, their misery will be very short-lived in comparison,'' said Dania resident Rae Sandler.

The county is still deciding whether to buy the affected homes in Dania or just to help owners sell. A vote is scheduled at the County Commission later this month. The airport is paying to sound-proof homes, but Sandler said that won't help them when they're outdoors.

"They will permanently lose their lifestyle,'' Sandler said. "All of Dania Beach's waterfront property will be directly impacted by the expansion. All of it.''

Dania airport expansion foes are hoping to gain some supporters of their cause among those newly assaulted with sound.

The newly afflicted who think they can't bear the noise of the diagonal runway get a lot of opportunities to rethink it. About 300 airplanes land, and about 300 take off every day, Meyer said. That's a plane in each direction every four or five minutes. Most of the traffic is during the day, though. Only about 10 planes, or fewer, fly between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., he said.

There's no other option, says Meyer. High-speed exitways are being added to the main runway.

"This is not a beautification plan,'' Meyer insisted. "This is a major undertaking.''

Airport project manager Gasser Douge said the exitways will allow jets to quickly get off the runway to make room for the next one.

Most of the jet traffic now is flying in from the northwest to land, spreading noise over Broward suburbia. The planes mostly take off to the southeast, affecting northeastern Dania and the tip of Hollywood beach.

"It is IMPOSSIBLE to sleep, relax, watch TV or even have a conversation when Jets fly 100' over your house,'' Riverland resident Eric Romain complained in an email to the airport. "That situation HAS to stop IMMEDIATELY. It is completely insane to think that we, tax payers have to endure that noise for another 64 days!!!''

But even a mile or two northwest, around Broward Boulevard and State Road 7, with airplanes about 1,200 feet high, residents of Melrose Park and beyond can hear the thunder-like rumbling of approaching jets.

Broward Aviation Director Kent George warned county commissioners Tuesday that they might be hammered with complaints.

The discomfort that started May 3 ends July 7, he said.

Then the diagonal runway returns to its role as a backup when weather calls for it.

And in 2013, during construction of the second main runway that will be built on the airport's south side, the diagonal runway will be decommissioned, airport operations director Mike Nonnemacher said, and it won't be used again.